Current situation in the Turkish Higher Education sector

15 May 2017

EUA has expressed in several occasions its concerns regarding the measures taken in Turkey since the attempted coup in July 2016 and keeps monitoring the evolution of the situation for the higher education sector.

As of beginning of May 2017, 3900 public employees have been arrested, and even larger number suspended according to news reports. Among the sacked are also 484 academic and 98 administrative staff from different universities. As for other sacked public employees, their names have published on the website of the Turkish Official Journal, on Saturday, 29 April.

The lists also mention also 59 students studying on a grant abroad, with whom “relationships” have been cut. In addition, another 45 civil society organisation have been closed

Another list mentions public employees, who have been allowed to return to work, among them 18 academics from 13 different universities

Turkey Purge, a website run by a group of journalists which is tracking the purges, also reports to that 16 of the dismissed academics, some of them signatories of Academics for Peace Declaration, from Dicle University in Diyarbakir have been arrested. The website counts more than 7000 academics and university employees being sacked since the failed coup attempt on 15 July 2016. However, it quotes a report of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), released in March this year which refers to 4,811 academics to have been dismissed from 112 universities.

As reported the international press, in addition sackings of individual public employees, arrests and closings of civil society organisations, internet users in Turkey can no longer use Wikipedia.